Real Estate Principles and Practices
Land, property, and ownership
Real property is land plus the improvements, rights, and appurtenances permanently attached to it; personal property is everything else. The exam loves fixtures, resolved by attachment, adaptation, and agreement - and the related trap that trade fixtures installed by a commercial tenant generally remain the tenant's property and may be removed before lease expiration. Ownership is described as an estate: fee simple absolute (the broadest), life estate (measured by a life, with remainder interests), and leasehold estates (personal property). Co-ownership questions test tenancy in common (unequal shares, no survivorship), joint tenancy (equal shares, right of survivorship, four unities), and community property - New Mexico is a community property state, so property acquired during marriage by either spouse is presumptively community, while property owned before marriage or received by gift or inheritance is separate.
Encumbrances and land description
Distinguish liens (a debt-related encumbrance, e.g., mortgages and tax liens) from easements and encroachments. An easement appurtenant benefits a neighboring parcel and runs with the land; an easement in gross benefits a person or entity. Know metes and bounds, the lot-and-block system, and the government survey system (a section is one square mile, 640 acres; a quarter-quarter section is 40 acres).
New Mexico flavor
Water is a separate, severable right governed by prior appropriation - first in time, first in right, beneficial use - and historic acequias (community irrigation ditches) carry their own governance. Expect questions about limited water rights, large federal and state land holdings, and Spanish and Mexican land grant history.
Trap and rule of thumb
Do not confuse physical characteristics of land (immobility, indestructibility, uniqueness) with economic characteristics (scarcity, scarcity-driven value, situs, and improvements). Rule of thumb: 43,560 square feet per acre, so a parcel 660 ft by 1,320 ft is 871,200 sq ft, or exactly 20 acres.